Some of our National group will do this one (10x --150 Fast/150 easy)
And some will do this (10x -- 2x75 Fast/1x75 easy)
Wednesday, 27 April 2016
Tuesday's April 26 2016
After our rain-out on Monday afternoon, we got back to work on Tuesday with a Breaststroke or Butterfly-themed practice. Three of our athletes did a separate set -- some Freestyle or Backstroke.
Shawn (Fly), Matt (Breast), and Jack (Breast) led the way on the stroke set. We did a 150 on (2:00), followed by a 50 on (1:00).
The good part about the set was that the 50s were good or very good. Athletes were hitting 200 Pace throughout the set, and descending to back half 100 Pace or faster. In a few cases, athletes were hitting half of their 100 goal.
The part of the set that needed work was the technique and skill application on the 150s. The swimming, kicking, and drilling were sloppier than we should be on this set. Our top training groups back in 2013 and 2014 had a lot of trouble getting into this type of set (although we had a few people that were awesome at it)…but I'd say our group we have today is very good at it normally and we will get back to that excellence the next time we do this type of set.
Because our skills were not as good as we needed them to be, I pulled the interval back to 2:10 for the middle set of 3, and 2:20 for the final set of 3. The 50s stayed on 1:00. I felt like pulling the intervals back was necessary, particularly because we were working with Breast and Fly. Those strokes require a lot of energy output to swim well (on top of the water, quick open turns, fast tempo on dolphin kicks)…and we were better on the intervals at the end of the set. It's funny, pretty much everyone dropped a half second or more on their average 50 time after the interval moved to 2:20.
We had another group of athletes go 16x200 Free or Back. We did 4 on 2:30, 4 on 2:25, 4 on 2:30, and 4 on 2:20. Great job for all, particularly Paolo who did Backstroke and went 207 for 4, 206 for 4, 207 for 4, then 207, 204, 205, 204.0 on the final 4.
Paolo is a 1:55.1 Backstroker. Take a close look at this set….he's going "Plus 12" at his slowest (1:55 + 12 = 207). He's going "Plus 9" at his fastest.
Think about it Paolo….
If you're 200 Freestyle time is 1:42, to equal your Backstroke set you'd have to do:
16x200 Free…4 on 2:20, 4 on 2:15, 4 on 2:20, 4 on 2:10 (intervals adjust because your Free PR is 13 seconds faster than your Back PR)…..and you'd have to average 154s (142 Plus 12 = 154) on the set, and finish with a 151 (Plus 9).
So, I guess that means that was an above-average backstroke set! It also probably means that you're freestyle training can get better….you can swim sub 1:00 more often at this stage in the game.
Here's another reason why freestyle training should be better than backstroke training: The Diving Reflex (The teaser for this clip is this: all mammals have a reflex that lowers the heart rate by 20%, occurs when the face is submerged in water). Backstroke not only is a "face out of the water" stroke for half or more than half of the race, but it is using a larger group of muscles in the legs and encouraging a higher ventilation rate -- which affects the rate of the backstroker.
In other words, it's tough to train fast backstroke! Athletes who can swim fast backstroke in practice can swim fast at anything in practice.
Let's get back to work today everyone!
Monday, 25 April 2016
Weekend MAC Meet
We swim fast every day!
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
Doing well in practice & knowing it
Knowing your times helps you build personal self-confidence when you are training well.
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Tuesday 4.19.16 Practice Review
Tuesday's main set:
Repeat three times through:
{3 rounds: 25 easy + 25 Fast
2 rounds: 50 easy + 50 Fast
1 round: 75 easy + 75 Fast}
This is a short set for us. We did a good warmup set and got into it. The 75s are the big swims of the set. The instructions were to be 90% on the 25s, and 93-95% on the 50s…then descend the 75s and see what you can put up.
The results were very good. It doesn't take a lot to figure out what the paces mean for Short Course Yards pace/racing. Here's how I convert to LCM pace/racing:
Take the time and multiply by three -- that's your pace per 200 Meters (based off the conversion of 225Y=200M. I add one second for "a turn". So, a 45.0 turns into a 46.0 {46.0 for a 75, x3 = 2:18 LCM pace).
Converting to a 200M makes the math easier, but on this type of set we are generally looking at an athlete's "GOAL 2nd 50" of a 100 LCM swim. Here's how I see it:
37.0/38.0 = 1:54.0 (28.5 per 50) / 100 LCM would be 26.5 + 28.5 = 55.0 pace
38.0/39.0 = 157.0 (29.25 per 50) / 100 LCM would be 27.25 + 29.25 = 56.5 pace
39.0 scy 75….57.0 LCM pace
40.0….58.5 pace
41.0….1:00.0 pace
42.0….1:01.5 pace
If you'll notice, above, I've assigned a 2.0 second difference between the 2nd 50, theoretically trained in this set -- and the first 50 (trained at other times during our weekly work). However, I'd offer that for backstrokers you are going to see a 1.0 to 1.5 second difference, mainly due to the fact that backstrokers start in the water (not on the block)….so backstrokers may need to adjust the above chart accordingly. For Breaststrokers, the difference between the first and second 50 is the furthest apart in comparison to the other disciplines…so I look for a 3.0-4.0 second difference in practice.
So, for a breaststroker with a 3.5 second difference -- goal pacing may look like this:
43.0/44.0 = 2:12.0 (33.0 per 50) / 100 LCM would be 29.5 + 33.0 = 1:02.5 pace
44.0/45.0 = 2:15.0 (33.5 per 50) / 100 LCM would be 30.0 + 33.5 = 1:03.5 pace
45.0 scy 75…..1:04.5 LCM pace
46.0…..1:05.5 pace
47.0…..1:06.5 pace
48.0…..1:07.5 pace
Think about your paces and how they "add up" according to this chart. I'd say we are well on our way to some great LCM 100s. Our next goal is to see some of our 18 and under women to get under 40.0 for 75s Free….and for our Men's breaststroke group to go deeper into the 45 range, and get into 43.0-44.2 range with our quickest guys.
Monday Practice Report
We had two goals for Monday PM's practice:
1- a strong kicking set (we did 10x100 with the last 4 on 1:20 or 1:30)
2- a strong aerobic set (we did either 12x250 or 12x150)
Jack, Drew (a visitor from Indiana), Karen, and Bella did the 12x250.
Here is the set & Jack's results. Karen's and Bella's results are written below:
1x250 (310) -- 231
3x250 (255) -- 227, 227, 227
2x250 (305) -- 230, 230
2x250 (250) -- 224, 223
3x250 (3) -- 230, 230, 230
1x250 (245) -- 217.9
Karen held 241-242 on the 250s on 310, 305, and 3, while holding 238-235 on the others. Karen went 227 on the end!
Bella held 243-246 on the 250s on 310, 305, and 3, while holding 241-237 on the others. Bella went 237 on the end!
Drew did really awesome too! I'm not going to post a lot of details on kids who swim with other teams…Drew's coach can make that call :)
Our 18x150s group did the set almost flawlessly. The one hiccup was on number 9….too easily done after a pair of fast 150s. Jacob 120.1 after a 125, 124 pair led the way. As an example, Jacob went his 125 and 124, but went up to 132 (if I remember correctly?) on number 9…I would think 128 would be more appropriate given the 125-124 pair. But to Jacob's and the rest of the group's credit, they get right back in the correct range on number 10 and 11, leading into some good 150s on the end.
Little details make the set! We are actually a pretty savvy team overall with this time of thing.
The kick set at the beginning was a good, strong effort. It wasn't our best effort as a group, but we didn't kick poorly….it seemed like the group was getting warmed up mentally for the rest of the day. I bring this up to highlight the reality of training, as it is sometimes! Parents and those who are not involved in training have a hard time seeing how this works, but for those of us who are "in it" -- it's a reality…..you gotta "GET UP" for training. Some days are tougher than others in terms of "Getting up". But, this being said -- perhaps we need to be harder on ourselves.
I will say that yesterday I wondered and thought about our morning practice attendance (we were hit and miss Monday morning with our National group). When you have to face Monday PM practice after being "off" since Saturday morning (that's 60 hours!)….the Monday PM practice can come as a shock! The other athletes (who came to Monday AM practice) can end up getting this undesirable attitude that says "well, that guy didn't even GET HERE this morning…why do I have to work the WHOLE practice this afternoon…after all, at least I have been here." When everyone is at practice, firing together, it makes it easier to get into the "we're all in this together" attitude mode…which is very powerful!
So, I'd say that while Monday PM's kick set, in itself, wasn't all that bad -- it probably could have been better if we would have all had the Monday AM kick set under our belt…not to mention we would have all been up since 5am and it's quite possible that this fact could have psyched us up as a group to do even better in the PM. And you all know how I feel, I'd prefer not to waste a single set in training! We can do it.
Parents, don't be mistaken. I'm not pointing out an overt attitude issue we had at practice on Monday PM. This is a very subtle thing that I consider when I think about the direction of our group's attitude. I do think that our attitude AT PRACTICE on Monday PM was awesome. We had almost all Group members in attendance, and athletes were psyched doing the training…which showed through their awesome results.
I want to re-iterate what I put out in an email a few weeks back. I have encouraged parents not to attend practices, for a variety of reasons, but I am changing my tune with the National group. Do you want to know a good day to see what's going on? Friday is a great day…it's a bit shorter, and if you just saw 5pm-540pm you'd more often than not see a group kicking set -- which is a key to our training. You can feel free to use the bleachers on the CSN side of the pool.
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